Pokémon GO Now Allows Android Users To Play Their Own Music While Hunting

Pokémon GO climbed to the top of the charts in the gaming arena, but its background music soon became annoying for many players. To make it worse, the game used to block external app audio play and impose its own background score. Thankfully, in its latest patch for Android, Niantics Labs has removed that barrier, and the game now allows players to hunt for Pokémons while listening to their own choice of music. The change is not new to iOS users though as they have had this functionality since version 1.23.x.

Pokémon GO’s latest 0.55.0 patch for Android now brings this ability onboard. Niantics did not mention it in the changelog for Android. However, many Reddit users started reporting about it on the forum. The game no longer stops the current music on opening, and hence users can easily play the game without having to put up with the odd gameplay music.

Niantics did not impose the gameplay music deliberately; the barrier was caused by a bug in the Unity 3D game engine. As a gaming engine, it conveniently assumes that players would willingly want to listen to the in-app game music and hence it did not allow external audio to work while the user plays the game. Unity fixed the bug, and Android players realized after some time.

As welcoming as it is, this change also comes with a shortcoming. According to many Reddit users, the game lowers the volume for external music on its own, which leads the user to increase it manually to the highest level so that it reaches an acceptable level. But, once the user exits the game, the volume goes back to the highest and booms in the ears. It is not yet clear whether it is a deliberate gaming effect or a bug.